Bring it home, St. Louis

Tuesday

Oct 15, 2013 at 10:34 PMOct 15, 2013 at 10:42 PM

The Cardinals are on a roll ... only one win away from the World Series

Brandon Case

Here’s my appeal to the St. Louis Cardinals, currently facing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series: don’t let them win again. A victory for the Cardinals is a victory for the midsection—a triumph of heartland values over West Coast weirdness. Now is the time to show Los Angeles and Hollyweird, California the mettle of the middle: put this thing away. It’s not just LA versus St. Louis—it’s Los Angeles and its millions versus the sparsely populated plains. Now is the time to rise to the top. Do not waiver, my beloved Cardinals, press on—onward to the victory.

Over the past 40 or so years, I have been a St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan. I listened to the Cardinals broadcast on the AM station out of Enid, Oklahoma on summer and fall evenings while growing up in northwest Oklahoma. I still have a Cardinals ball cap I bought at an Oklahoma City 89ers (minor league) ballgame I attended with a church youth group when I was 12 years old. The Cardinals have built a large, multi-state fan base through affiliate radio stations in states that today include Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

I finally experienced my first Cardinals’ game in 1999 when Kathie, I and the girls traveled to St. Louis from Hays, enroute to visiting Kathie’s family in south central Pennsylvania. It was definitely a memorable experience having been a Cardinals fan since a young boy and seeing the famous Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium for the first time. My one and only trip to a Cardinals game proved to be a great time, with all the ambiance of a ballpark on a summer’s evening, even with Big Mac on the injured list and the Atlanta Braves taking home the win.

No offense to Los Angeles—I have friends there from FHSU graduate school days—but, the Cardinals are the better team. Tuesday night’s game in the City of the Angels with a 4-2 win proved that well. The Redbirds are up 3-1 now in the NLCS. There’s one game to go until the World Series. Bring it home, St. Louis.